I was hoping my very good friend Airwolf would get to this before I did, lest it be outdated, but anyway, our fellow Nebraskan's chances of riding into office on someone else's coat-tails took a diving dive yesterday, when former U.S. Senator Joseph R. ("Bob") Kerrey announced he's not running for the seat being vacated by E. Benjamin Nelson (D-Nebraska) this year.
Bob had been the Nebraska Democrats' Great White Hope for retaining that seat--it was dubious, but he had a better chance than any other Democrat--but now he's out. There's now two nonentities being considered.
It was always a reasonably good bet that the Republicans would pick up this seat, but with no Bob, it's now much more than a "reasonably" good bet. I wouldn't call it a sure thing, but it's the closest one can get to a sure thing without being a sure thing. I'd put it somewhere around 97-98-99%, but no more than that.
Anyway, some Nebraska Democrats running for lower-level offices had hoped the appearance of Bob at the top of the state ticket would boost their chances; maybe Chief Blubbering Hatchet was hoping to pick up circa 20-30 more votes with Bob at the top.
Alas for the Democrats of Nebraska!
As Airwolf pointed out some weeks ago, if Bob were to run, he'd be running in a Nebraska much different from the Nebraska he ran in, and won, during the 1990s. The 1990s was when Nebraska Democrats were king of the hill, and they were sure the elephant was finally dead, extinct, forever vanquished, never to rise again.
My, how the Mighty have fallen the past twenty years!
If the eventual Republican candidate for this Senate seat wins, there'll be no Democrat in the whole entire state occupying a position higher than city councilman somewhere, other than the machine bosses of Omaha and Lincoln.
